


dear you

by dreamsdark



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Feelings, M/M, Pre-Canon, Root A, Tragedy, episode 12, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-04-02
Packaged: 2018-03-20 23:13:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3668739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamsdark/pseuds/dreamsdark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hide always pushes himself too far.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dear you

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to say much here  
> but please don't read this if you don't know what happens in episode twelve of root a!  
> seriously you don't want spoilers for that
> 
> but the first part is fine, it's sort of like a flashback...
> 
> also hey actual hidekane

“Kaneki!”  
  
“Hi...de?” Kaneki turns over, groaning. His arm hurts where he fell on it, and did he hurt his leg...?  
  
“Oh, thank fuck you’re alright.” Hide is panting; he must have run here from his class. “Can you stand?”  
  
Kaneki pushes himself up with his good arms, but his legs tremble and his knees hit the ground. Hide catches him before he falls face-first. “Kaneki?” He’s shaking him, gripping his shoulders a little too hard. “Are you alright— _tell me you’re alright_ —”  
  
Kaneki nods. “Just. Dizzy?” It’s not his leg after all. Had he been hit over the head? “Sorry.”  
  
“What are you even apologizing for; it’s those bastards’ fault!” Kaneki should probably chastise Hide for his language, but Hide’s only like this when he’s mad. It should be fine, right? His head hurts too much to think about it...  
  
“Kaneki? Kaneki!”  
  
Black.  
  
-  
  
He wakes up in the nurse’s office. It’s still that dead white; completely colorless. Kaneki hates hospitals, always so depressing...  
  
He notices a splash of bright color to his left, and—“Hide?”  
  
Hide’s lying down on the cot next to him. When he notices Kaneki, he immediately pushes himself up. “Yo, you awake?”  
  
“Why are you—are you hurt?” That’s a stupid question—why else would he be here? But Hide shouldn’t be hurt for him.  
  
“Ah, it’s—”  
  
“Not nothing.” The nurse cuts in. Kaneki had forgotten she was there, in his worry. “Your idiot friend twisted his ankle trying to carry you.”  
  
_What_. “You carried me?” _You got hurt because of me?_  
  
Seeing the guilt written all over Kaneki’s face, Hide rushes to reassure him. “Yeah, kinda stupid, right? I tried standing up too fast, and,” he gestures to the splint on his ankle, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, “sort of...fell? Got it right the second try though!”  
  
“You carried me with a broken ankle?” Hide flinches, and Kaneki realizes how loud his voice had gotten.  
  
“Had to get you here somehow, right?”  
  
“Idiot! You could’ve called for help!” The nurse is visibly restraining herself from interrupting, he can tell. Whatever, he needs to get Hide to realize how completely stupid he’s being.  
  
“I wasn’t exactly thinking straight...you passed out! What did those assholes even want with you?”  
  
The nurse finally stops holding her tongue. “Who exactly are ‘those assholes’?” Kaneki feels the urge to childishly point out that she just cursed, _oooh how naughty!_ but squashes it. Not the point.  
  
“They were gone when I got there. ‘Neki?” Hide nods towards him, and the nurse looks at him expectantly.  
  
“I don’t know,” Kaneki answers truthfully. “I’ve never seen them before.”  
  
“Can you describe them?” Kaneki’s pretty sure the nurse shouldn’t be the one interrogating him, but it’s no secret their school system is crap. She’s probably the only half-decent person here; the people who’re supposed to deal with this would probably ignore him.  
  
“They kind of...pushed me down? Before I saw them.” What he means is someone had snuck up behind and hit the back of his head, and he had endured the blows until something had distracted them and they ran off. He’d gotten a look for a few seconds, but nothing concrete. Just enough to confirm that he had no idea who they were.  
  
She frowns. “That’s not much to go off of. You really sure you didn’t know them?”  
  
Kaneki nods. What else can he do?  
  
Hide’s frustration is almost tangible. “Damn it! What the hell is wrong with them?”  
  
“Hide, I’m fine...” His head only hurts slightly, and the pain in his arm is mostly gone.  
  
“You’re lucky you didn’t get a concussion,” the nurse interjects. Before Hide can say something else, she silences him with a glare. “And you’re lucky you didn’t hurt yourself further when you tried to walk with that ankle. What were you thinking?”  
  
“I had to—to do _something_!” Kaneki can’t read his face; is he angry? Somehow, he sounds sad...but Hide’s never really sad.  
  
The nurse seems to get it, though. Her face breaks in understanding. “Alright. Try to be less reckless, at least?”  
  
Hide looks down, embarrassed. “I’ll try.”  
  
-  
  
Hide’s done it again.  
  
It’s like Kaneki watches him fall in slow motion, unable to move as Hide struggles to stand.  
  
No.  
  
Finally, when Hide’s legs give out and he falls to the floor, Kaneki finds himself and drops to a kneel, catching him.  
  
No.  
  
There’s so much blood on the ground, too much. How had he not noticed that? Had he been so caught up with Anteiku that he’s missed his best friend right in front of him...? “Hide?”  
  
“Sorry...kinda screwed up out there...” Hide sounds so weak. The wound on his side is still slowly oozing blood through his fingers, and Kaneki just. Feels numb. Hide’s always pushed himself too far, ignoring sleep and food in favor of finishing last-minute assignments, or getting into fights he can’t win to defend _him_ , and now...  
  
No.  
  
_No_.  
  
This isn’t happening.  
  
Not Hide.  
  
Hide grabs his shoulder, and Kaneki can’t even breathe. Hide’s so close he can feel each staggered breath, completely open and looking at Kaneki with a...a love so strong he—”Let’s go home.”  
  
_Yes. Please, please, let’s go home._  
  
Tightens his grip. “Let’s...go home.” And for a second, he thinks Hide is going to lean in just a little, press their lips together. Wishes he would, but then Hide’s grip slackens and he collapses onto Kaneki’s shoulder.  
  
_No. No. Nononononono—No! Not Hide, please—_  
  
Why is there _fire_?  
  
He doesn’t understand. Nothing makes sense, because why is Hide the one hurt? Hide should never be hurt. Kaneki had avoided him to protect him and now—  
  
He’s crying, he realizes, tears slipping down his face and splashing on Hide’s cheek. He should stop, but...is there any point? Anteiku is burning around him, and Hide is—  
  
He can’t even think it.  
  
Can’t even look at Hide, who’s...smiling? Like he wants Kaneki to…

He understands now, what he has to do.

_Thank you._

**Author's Note:**

> ...i just have a lot of feelings ok  
>  so root a basically confirmed all my headcanons (which is...hide being left out :( and hide being a COMPLETE IDIOT jfc)  
> oh and hidekane is canon  
> ...at least root a got something right--
> 
> i'm sorry this is a mess i'm not very coherent (I wrote this right after the root a finale, finished it Saturday...but i was on vacation so i didn't post until now) neither is kaneki so whatever  
> it's not really edited either so it's kind of crap...
> 
> i thought this was gonna be a drabble but somehow it's 1000+ words that wasn't supposed to happen oops


End file.
